Biography

Still in her early twenties, American cellist Ashley Bathgate has already stirred critics and audiences alike with the “poise,” “passion,” and “supreme musicianship” of her performances. As a recitalist, she has appeared at the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, Barge Music, the Pleshakov Music Center and Moulin d’Ande in Normandy, France, to name a few, and this season made her official New York Debut in Carnegie’s Weill Hall with noted pianist Todd Crow. Ashley was also a featured artist on WMHT FM and WQXR FM’s “Young Artists Showcase”, hosted by Robert Sherman. She has been invited to perform as a guest soloist with orchestra, including appearances with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra and in performances of the d’Albert and Barber cello concertos with the American Symphony Orchestra, directed by Leon Botstein.

Devoted to chamber music, Ashley performs regularly in benefit concerts and chamber recitals in the US, Canada, and Europe. She has been privileged to work with many distinguished artists including pianist, Pascal Rogé and violinist Chantal Juillet. In addition, she has relished the opportunity to perform new and recent works, most notably with renowned composers John Adams, Ezra Laderman and Martin Bresnick. Ashley is a member of Aldo Parisot’s Yale Cellos, the Yale Philharmonia and performs frequently at the Windham Chamber Music Festival, directed by Robert Manno and Magdalena Golczewski.

Ashley was a full scholarship student at Bard College, where she studied cello with Luis Garcia- Rènart and composition with Joan Tower. Having received her Masters degree from the Yale University School of Music in 2007, she was selected for the prestigious Artist Diploma program by her teacher Aldo Parisot, and in that same year received the prize in his name for the gifted cellist most showing promise for a concert career. While at the Yale University School of Music, she studied composition with Ezra Laderman and chamber music with Claude Frank, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, Ani Kavafian and the Tokyo String Quartet. Ashley has participated in master-classes with Jian Wang, Irene Sharp, Ralph Kirschbaum and Jesus Castro-Balbi. Among her many awards are a grant from the New York Philharmonic Players Fund sponsored by Stephen and Elaine Stamas, top prizes in the Lois Lyman Concerto competition ('99 & '01, an unprecedented achievement), the Hugo Kauder Memorial Strings competition in 2006 and the 2008 Yale University School of Music Concerto competition.